


Catch Me if You Can

by Syverne



Category: Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Alien Technology, Aliens, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Future, Alternate Universe - Space, Androids, Antisepticeye Sean McLoughlin, Blood and Gore, Demonic Possession, Far Future, Game of Thrones References, Genetically Engineered Beings, Insanity, Mind Control, Mind Manipulation, Murder, Outer Space, Past Character Death, Possession, Robots, Spaceships, Technology, Temporary Character Death, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-19
Updated: 2019-08-08
Packaged: 2019-10-12 17:27:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 10
Words: 16,949
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17471828
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Syverne/pseuds/Syverne
Summary: Whilst returning from a ten-year mission into deep space, Academy graduates Mark Fischbach, Seán "Jack" McLoughlin, Cryaotic, Felix Kjellberg, Ethan Nestor, Tyler Scheid, and Matthew Patrick are thrown into what may become their most dangerous mission yet.One of the engines of their ship is damaged in mysterious circumstances, and when three of the group go to investigate, Jack is possessed by an evil alien entity by the name of Anti. Anti then proceeds to slowly attack, capture, and kill (not necessarily in that order) members of the group, while the others frantically try and figure out a way to save their friends before they get home.When one after another falls prey to the creature, Mark must decide whether he's willing to risk everything to save his friends, or sacrifice himself to save those they are coming home to.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Devil's Deal](https://archiveofourown.org/works/9214760) by [Haunted_Moonlight](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Haunted_Moonlight/pseuds/Haunted_Moonlight). 



Mark awoke to someone shining a light directly into his eyes.

 

“Wh-” he started to mumble, groggy.

 

“Oh good, you’re not dead,” the blob in front of him started to shape into an actual person, but by this point, Mark didn't need to see him - he would know that voice anywhere. “I was beginning to think I’d killed you.”

 

“A-Anti,” the red-haired man managed to get out. His voice still wasn’t working properly, which he could probably blame Anti for. Mark was still shocked by the striking resemblance the alien creature bore to his friend, even though it _was_ Jack’s body Anti was inhabiting.

 

“That’s me, Mark!” Anti exclaimed, smiling wickedly. 

 

Mark tried to lift his arms and found that he was chained to very rather uncomfortable chair. The chains themselves were heavy and wound around his arms multiple times, restricting movement to almost impossible.

 

“Oh, no, no, you’re not getting away from me this time,” Anti tapped the chains. “You’re going to stay ri-i-i-ight here until I’m finished with you.”

 

“Just get it over with,” Mark hissed through clenched teeth. “Do whatever parasite crap you did to my friends and stop putting me through all this bull.”

 

“Now, now, where’s the fun in that? Without even letting you look around first?” Anti cooed, cocking an eyebrow.

 

Mark had been trying to avoid looking around for the past few minutes. Knowing Anti, one of his friends was probably lying dead right next to his chair. Mark dropped his chin and stared down at his knees and the floor, refusing to play Anti’s sadistic games any longer.

 

A hand grabbed Mark’s chin and forced it up. He tried to pull his head out of Anti’s grip but failed, and Anti chuckled as he peered into Mark’s eyes with his own.

 

Anti’s eyes were the one defining feature that screamed ‘alien’. They had no whites, but instead were a pure luminescent green with jet-black pupils. And they were _cold._ Jack’s eyes had been warm, as the eyes of all his friends had been. Anti’s eyes were a snowstorm in the middle of December. Those eyes just served as a reminder to Mark that this wasn’t Jack anymore - how many times, when Anti had been their prisoner, had Mark glanced over and thought it was Jack sitting there, only for the man to look at him with eyes that screamed ‘monster’? Too many.

 

Mark clenched his hands into fists, making the chains rattle. His jaw was beginning to ache from clenching his teeth together, and his injured leg was itching, but he wasn’t going to let up.

 

“Don’t worry, Mark,” Anti said. “Your… _friends_ are still alive.”

 

“That’s crap and you know it,” he spat in Anti’s face, tagging on a curse at the end just to _try_ and insult the monster.

 

“You seem to be determined to make this harder than it needs to be.” Anti hissed, and though the words sounded angry there was nothing but cold, indifferent, emotionless ice behind those luminescent eyes.

 

Nothing happened for a moment, before he and the chair slammed into the wall and then the floor, landing him on his back.. He felt something crack - possibly a rib, and Mark groaned and tried to get up, but he was still chained tightly to the chair. Someone, or some _thing_ , grabbed the back of the chair and yanked Mark up into the air.

 

“Anti-” but it wasn’t Anti. A look over his shoulder told Mark that the man holding the chair had bright blue hair and a small build, the distinct characteristics of…

 

“Ethan?!”

 

Ethan didn’t say anything, but set the chair down rather forcefully and strode around to stand in front of Mark. His expression was vacant and he didn’t seem to recognize Mark, despite having known the red-haired man for most of his life. Ethan raised a fist slowly and tilted his head to stare down at Mark, his eyes glowing a pale, ethereal green, whilst Anti looked on from aside with a horrific smile of near-childish delight.

 

Mark regarded Ethan with a fiery desperation and slight panic, searching for any sign that he was even partially himself. “Ethan, listen to me-” Mark was hit violently by Ethan’s raised fist, the blow slamming directly into his cheek and by extension his teeth. It was a sudden, sharp pain, ricocheting through Mark’s skull like a sharp-edged Frisbee. The punch was unnaturally strong, definitely not something Ethan could have delivered before Anti made him into his dancing monkey. Still, despite the pain, he kept trying to get to him. “Ethan, you can’t let him do this-”

 

A second blow hit, the other side of his face this time, and a sickening crunch told him that a tooth had come loose. Spitting it and a whole lot of blood out onto the floor, his resolve to get through to his friend causing him to not miss a beat, Mark continued, starting, “Ethan, I know you can hea-” before the third punch came hard and fast, straight into the middle of his face, breaking his nose with a loud _crack!_

 

There was silence in the room for a few moments before Anti began to laugh. Mark cringed at the sound - it was downright _wrong_ compared to the laugh of an ordinary human. The closest noise Mark could relate it to would have been if one had put Jack’s laugh through an old, broken mixer with the settings all askew.

 

Blood dripped off of Mark’s face and down onto his jacket, staining it crimson. Another tooth came loose, and he spat it out weakly, covering his legs in bright red blood. It began to pool around his feet, and Mark felt his head start to swim from the loss of blood.

 

“Having fun, Markimoo?” Anti’s taunting voice came from behind him this time, but Mark could barely muster the strength to lift his head. “Hit him again, Ethan, I don’t think he’s got the idea yet.”

 

Before Mark could even make a noise of protest, Ethan’s fist hit him in the gut, knocking the wind from his lungs and his chair back on two legs. For one nerve-wracking moment he expected to fall backwards and hit the floor, but the chair rocked forwards and stayed upright.

 

Mark yelped as a hand wrenched his head up painfully. He couldn’t imagine what kind of bruises would be on his face and stomach the next day… if he even survived until then. One of Anti’s hands was in his hair, yanking it upwards and causing his scalp to explode with pain, while the other was moving his chin this way and that, as though admiring what Ethan had done to his face.

 

“I’m surprised you survived this long,” Anti commented after releasing his head, then touching a scar on Mark’s temple. “What with your tendency to try to sacrifice yourself for your friends.” 

 

Mark glared at him. “Well, you’ve got me now,” he said, voice laced with sass despite the effort it took to get the words out. “Just kill me or do your parasite what’s-it and get this whole dog-and-pony-show over with, okay?”

 

Anti frowned, complaining, “But we were having _so much fun!_ ” a thoughtful look then came across his face. “Well, if that’s what you want…” he drew a knife from somewhere aside that Mark couldn’t quite see and held it over his shoulder, poised like a snake ready to strike. “Game over, Markimoo.”

 

The last thing Mark saw was Anti’s ecstatic and curious expression before a jolt of pain struck his chest. Then an odd rushing sensation flooded his body and the world went black.

 


	2. Chapter 1

“I propose we never do that again.” Felix raised a glass of wine and looked around at the others.   


 

“Hear, hear,” Cry muttered, pretending to drink from his empty glass.   


 

“Seconded,” Jack said, and clinked his glass against Felix'.

 

Mark mumbled his assent and took a drink from his own glass. “Ten years is too long.”

 

“Can’t wait to get home and see Steph,” Mat elbowed Mark in the side, a wide smile splitting his face. “What does Amy think of the new colour?” he gestured at the other man’s newly-dyed red hair.   


 

“She thinks it suits me,” Mark told them, inwardly grinning as he added, “but she wants the dye out before the wedding.”

 

A hush fell over the crew.

 

“ _ Wedding? _ ” Tyler asked, gaping, and suddenly all eyes were on Mark. “A-are you…”

 

“Yeah,” Mark smiled. “I didn’t tell you guys? I proposed this morning… and she said yes.”

 

It was like he had just dropped a bombshell. Alcohol-fueled whooping and congratulations suddenly filled the room, melting into a storm of joyous noise.

 

“Congrats!” Jack clapped his hands together and waved Felix, who was holding the wine bottle, over. “Another glass for the husband-to-be!”

 

Felix leaned over with the bottle and, despite Mark’s protests, filled his glass to the brim.

 

“We still have to fly home, guys, I don’t think we should all be drunk-”

 

“Oh, lighten up, Mark,” Ethan interjected, with a glance at the ship’s pilot, Jack. “The ship’s on autopilot ninety-five percent of the time anyway, our drunkenness won’t make any difference.”

 

“If you say so,” Mark mumbled into his glass. He had an odd feeling of foreboding, but he suspected it was just the wine digging in its heels.

 

“So, what are you guys going to do when you get home? We’ve heard Mark’s plans already,” Jack said, sweeping blue eyes around at the rest of the crew. Jack was the ship’s pilot, and hadn’t stopped beaming since the wine had first been opened. The green-haired Irishman was the life of the crew, always making jokes and screaming obscenities when something went wrong. He wore the standard outfit of the academy where the seven of them had been trained - dark grey cargo pants and a black jacket with the academy’s symbol embossed on the left shoulder - but instead of the regular, standard-issue black shirt and black boots, he had preferred to don a neon green shirt and knee-high black work boots with neon green laces that made him a hundred times louder than everyone else when he walked. Sometimes he wore pilot’s goggles on his head, but today day wasn’t one of those times.

 

For a weapon, Jack always had a blaster strapped to his leg - a relatively small one due to his role as the ship’s pilot and not a gunner or fighter. Jack’s real name was Seán McLoughlin, but after an accident caused one of his eyes to become infected and he lost the use of it, the entire academy had known him only as Jacksepticeye, or just Jack, though the exact origin of the name ‘Jack’ was unknown. The eye had since been removed and replaced with a black eyepatch - he had been offered a mechanical eye, but turned it down, staying true to his family’s wariness around robotics. The McLoughlins had been hit pretty hard years earlier during the android uprising, and they were still suffering from the consequences. “I, for one, am going to catch up with my family, and then take a walk through the Academy for the first time in ten years. I miss those gardens.”

 

“You mean you miss trashing them,” Mark shot, causing Ethan to snort into his drink and Felix to burst into some alcohol-induced laughter. Mark had been Jack’s roommate at the academy, and remembered an occasion when Jack and a few of his friends got drunk and made a mess of part of the gardens. Mark, luckily, had opted out and didn’t get in trouble. It had become a running joke that he was the responsible ‘mom friend’ of the group, and that gag had only been intensified when he had been appointed captain.

 

“That was  _ one time, _ ” Jack shook his head with a sigh of mock exasperation. “We just spent ten years on a spaceship together and you  _ still _ can’t let that go?”

 

“Oh, don’t worry,” Ethan put in. “We can’t let go  _ much _ worse things. I remember one time you and Felix decided to try and ride a Karzak through the Great Hall…” he trailed off, letting everyone else finish the story in their heads. Ethan Nestor was the smallest and youngest of the group, but that didn’t stop him from participating in everything the rest of the crew did. Recently, Ethan’s hair had taken on a bright blue colour, and he had taken to wearing a simple t-shirt, sweatpants, and a hefty toolbelt ever since he had been appointed as the crew’s technician. ‘If you want something fixed, you call Ethan,’ Mark had said once, as Ethan always seemed to be building, breaking, and then repairing everything aboard their ship, the  _ King Aegon _ . Ethan had been the one to name their starship, after a character from an old-Earth book series, as he was the one who had the deepest connection to it.

 

Jack turned red. “I was  _ fifteen, _ ” he protested. “That was  _ thirteen years ago. _ ”

 

“And I was nine, but apparently I had better sense than you did,” Ethan shot back. He had lost his parents in one of the constant wars on the outskirts of the mapped universe, and had been taken in by the academy as a child, so Ethan had been much younger than everyone else when the other members of the crew had first met him.

 

“You just got  _ burned! _ ” Felix cried, complete with sound effects, obviously quite drunk by this point as the comeback hadn’t really been that great. Mark suspected that Felix had already downed half the bottle, while he was only on his second glass. Felix Kjellberg was the crew’s gunner, and the only one out of them that always went along with Jack on his crazy ‘expeditions’ while they were still at school, despite being a year older. He didn’t care much about anything serious, least of all clothing. His outfit on any day was usually whatever he picked blindly out of his closet, and sometimes could be very unattractive. On that day, his outfit was at least somewhat coordinated, with a bright pink shirt, dark blue jeans, and a navy blue jacket. He also had his trusty blaster strapped to his leg in a brown leather holster, which may have seemed dangerous considering the alcohol, but Mark knew for a fact Felix had turned it down to the lowest setting - a simple shock - before starting to drink. As he had said before, ‘I may be irresponsible, but I’m not  _ that _ irresponsible.’

 

Cry had been silent during the conversation, but now Mat turned to him. “What’re you going to do when we get back, Cry?”

 

Mark had only met Cry the year before their ten-year mission, due to an unfortunate accident that had left Nate, the former seventh member of their crew, dead. So Cry, who had been replaced on his own team due to his being in hospital for almost a year, got shoved in with a bunch of strangers that knew nothing about him. None of them had ever seen his face, due to the mask Cry wore. He had been in a bad accident with acid whilst on a mission with his old crew, and according to the reports, most of his face and some of the rest of his body had been disfigured. However, Mark had heard a rumour that one of Cry’s friends had dared him to put his face in a bowl of a ‘mystery liquid,’ and that was what had melted his face, and Cry had neither confirmed nor denied that version of the events. He always wore a hoodie, gloves, and long clothing, presumably to cover up whatever damage had been done to his body. Initially, it had unsettled Mark, but after ten years, he had become accustomed to it, and now he didn’t even notice that Cry’s mouth didn’t move when he spoke, he didn’t blink, and his expression never changed. Despite knowing the other six like brothers, Cry was still was a man of few words, so much so that when they had first met, Mark thought that he  _ couldn’t _ speak.

 

It was a few moments, like always, before Cry spoke. “I’m going to go home. Not to the Academy, back to my  _ home. _ ”

 

Once again, the room fell silent.

 

“Cry… you’ve said for over ten years that you’re never going back there,” Mat pointed out. “Why do you want to go back to  _ Eskos? _ ”

 

“Because it may be dead, but I want to- I want to see my parents again.” he paused for a moment, then added in a snap, “Their  _ graves, _ I mean.” Cry took a breath. “You all must think I’m crazy.”

 

Cry had never spoken much about his past or where he’d come from, and the few times he’d been coerced into opening up, the only things he’d told them were that he had been born on Eskos right before the Desolation, and that he’d lost his entire family.

 

Ethan was the first to speak up, most likely because his having come from a similar background, though on a different planet. “No, Cry,” he said. “You should know us better than that. In fact, I want to come with you. I’ve always wanted to visit the Eskian memorials.”

 

“You don’t even have any family there-” Cry started to point out, but then Ethan poked him in the face. Mark suspected he had wanted to cover Cry’s mouth, but Cry didn’t really have a coverable mouth, so a short poke had replaced it.

 

“I barely knew my family. Who knows, maybe there were Nestors on Eskos,” Ethan shrugged, oddly nonchalant about his lack of relations.

 

“...I’d appreciate the company,” Cry admitted, moving to place down his empty wine glass on the table.

 

“Then it’s settled,” Ethan nodded. “We can figure out more details once we’re back properly,” he paused. “Uh… whose turn is it... Felix?”

 

Felix, who was now absolutely hammered by the looks of it, just looked at Ethan with a blank expression. “S’rry?”

 

“What - are - you - going - to - do - when - we - get - home?” Ethan emphasized the space between each word, strongly enunciating the consonants as if trying to speak to someone hard of hearing.

 

“Oh! I’m’a sleep in m’own bed… for the f’rst t’me in  _ ages, _ ” Felix gestured wildly with his hands, presumably trying to emphasize ‘ages.’ “An’ then I’m gon’a get s’me new games, ‘n’ play ‘em  _ all. _ ”

 

“Great.” Tyler said in a flat voice, getting up and placing a hand on Felix’ shoulder. “Why don’t you head off to sleep, Felix? You seem to have run out of wine.”

 

Looking rather surprised, Felix peered into the empty wine bottle, then looked up at Tyler with a hopeful expression. “So I’ve. Is’ere more?”

 

“There’s no more,” Mark lied, to Felix' obvious dismay.

 

“Sh’me.” he went to stand up and just about fell on his face before Tyler grabbed his arm. “I’m’a… I’m’a sleep, ‘r something.”

 

“Can you find your way to your quarters okay?” Jack asked, looking up at Felix with unmasked concern.

 

“I’m drunk, no’... no’ stupid,” Felix slurred before stumbling off in the opposite direction of his room.

 

“Your quarters are that way, Felix,” Mat pointed in the proper direction, and Felix quietly thanked him and started to stumble that way instead.

 

The six that were left sat in silence for a few moments, before Jack resumed where they had left off with, “Tyler?”

 

“Pardon?” Tyler’s head snapped over to look at the Irishman as he moved to sit back down in his seat.

 

Jack sighed, though a grin found its way to his face. “Home. What are you doing?”

 

“I’m going to visit my mom,” Tyler replied thoughtfully. “And take her to the Grand Theatre. She’s always wanted to go.” Tyler Scheid was  _ supposed _ to be the captain’s bodyguard, something which he was obviously suited for with his strong build, but after many,  _ many _ insistences by Mark that he didn’t need a bodyguard and Tyler really should stop calling him ‘sir’, his role had been changed to more of a general ship-and-crew guard. He still referred to himself as Mark’s bodyguard, however, arguing that it was the job he had been assigned by the academy and that frankly, Mark needed a bodyguard, reckless as he was. He was an offworlder, like Ethan and Cry, having been born and raised on the planet of Keibos, one of the closer planets to the new human homeworld (also named Earth). It was a harsh and humid jungle planet, populated more by bloodthirsty, savage animals than any other species. Unlike the rest of the crew, most of his stories about single-handedly defeating creatures on his home planet were actually true. His mother still lived on Keibos and he had been reluctant to leave her for their ten-year trek into deep space, but had eventually been convinced by her and the others to do so.

 

“Stop being such an upstanding citizen,” Mark joked. “We can’t all be amazing to our moms.” He sent a wary glance in Ethan’s direction, not wanting to hit a nerve with the talk of parents, but the blue-haired man seemed unbothered.

 

There was a break in the conversation before Mat continued with, “I have no idea what I’ll be doing when I get back,” he paused to shrug. “Steph probably won’t want to do anything, and I’ll be all too happy just to catch up with her.” Matthew Patrick was the only married crew member, as evidenced by the golden ring glimmering on his ring finger. His wife, Stephanie Patrick, worked at the academy itself, and had been offered a spot on the mission but turned it down to continue work on her personal projects. Mat was a mathematician, in charge of making sure the programs and digital functions of the computers onboard the ship worked properly. He worked closely with Ethan a lot of the time, though the two wore strikingly different outfits for their similar jobs. Mat often wore an old brown leather jacket, rumoured to have belonged to Nate before his death, and a multitude of greyscale pants. On that day he had chosen the standard black, with light brown running shoes and a black t-shirt. 

 

Jack nodded thoughtfully. “Ah, the struggles of married life. Are you  _ sure _ you want to throw yourself into that, Mark?”

 

Mark laughed. “Last time I checked, you weren’t married, Jack. And of course I’m sure! I’ve had ten years to think about it.”

 

Cry suddenly stood, to the surprise of the others, clenching his hands together as if nervous. “I’ll see you guys in the morning,” he murmured, before walking quickly out of the room.

 

“Families,” Ethan offered as an explanation, and the rest of the room made noises of understanding and/or agreement.

 

Mark looked down at his glass, somehow now empty despite him not remembering drinking it.

 

“The mood has officially been killed,” Jack commented, voicing the thoughts of everyone else in the room. He placed his wine glass down on the table and yawned. “Might as well head off too.”

 

“Yeah, been a long day,” Ethan yawned as well. He burped and covered his mouth, looking embarrassed as he added, “This wine’s  _ really _ strong, jeez.”

 

“It’s been aged ten years, didn’t you know?” Tyler told him with a smile. Then, turning back to Mark, Jack, and Mat, he added in a joking stage whisper, “Does that make wine stronger?”

 

Jack laughed and Mark chuckled, his mind drifting to other places.  _ We still have a long way to go before we get home… It’ll be a two day journey at least. What if something goes wrong while we’re all hungover tomorrow morning? _

 

As if he had read his mind, Jack piped up. “Remember, don’t jinx anything. Do not mention anything about explosions, lasers, asteroids, et cetera. Nothing’s going to go wrong,” he attempted to hit Mark in the arm. “Knock on wood!”

 

“...but what if we get hit by an asteroid while we’re all hungover tomorrow morning?” Ethan mumbled, smiling crookedly.

 

“Ethan, what did I  _ just _ say?” Jack asked, putting on a stern expression before sighing and looking down at the empty wine glasses on the table. “I’m heading to bed. No more worrying _ , _ you three!” At that, the green-haired Irishman stood up and exited the room.

 

_ I just hope he’s right, and that everything  _ will _ be fine _ , Mark thought, with a tiny itch of foreboding.  _ or else all those things we talked about could be blown away in the blink of an eye. _

 

Mark stayed on the bridge longer than everyone else, watching as Mat and Ethan both headed off to their rooms for the night. He gazed longingly into the wide, dark expanse of space out the front window, wishing that the planet of the academy would come into view. He just wanted off this ship.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A bit cliché, I know, but I'm having a lot of fun with this! Please let me know what you think of this story so far in the comments!  
> *waves to people who came here from Discord* hello friends!!


	3. Chapter 2

Nothing went wrong, at least for the first few hours. Mark woke up in no immediate danger, taking a small pill to try and relieve his hangover (“We’ve got spaceships and floating buildings but we don’t have a fully-working cure for hangovers yet? What kind of world is this?”) before heading up to the bridge. Cry was already there, playing some sort of 8-bit-style video game on his display screen.

 

“G’morning,” Mark called to the masked man, whom he suspected had been up for hours. He’d never actually seen Cry sleep before, and there was a running joke that he just shut down instead of sleeping.

 

Cry just made a noise of acknowledgement in reply, still focused on his game.

 

Not particularly wanting to discuss anything at that early hour, Mark took his seat in the centre of the bridge and put his feet up on the control panel in front of him.

 

The next few hours went by in a blur as various crew members woke up, stumbled in to the bridge to report that they were awake, then stumbled back out again to do who-knows-what. Felix was the last to make an appearance, as per usual, and he seemed so incredibly hungover that Mark ordered him to go back to sleep, which he grumbled about but did anyway. On the whole, it seemed like Jack’s prediction from the night before was going to come true.

 

That is, until all the alarms went off.

 

The first thing Mark noticed was that the wall alarms were neither blaring sirens nor flashing red, just beeping quietly, which was a dangerous sign. He quickly took his feet off the panel and checked one of the screens, which was flashing ‘ALERT 74’ in the corner over and over again, same with Mark’s wrist communicator.

 

“What the- what’s alert seventy-four?” Jack exclaimed from the other side of the room as Cry leapt up from his chair.

 

“There’s something dangerous aboard the ship, and if all the alarms started blaring the situation might become unstable,” Mark told him, hoping he was remembering correctly as he fiddled around with the control panel. He could see a small blinking dot on the map, a light grey to indicate that it wasn’t a crew member, back down by the rear engines. He zoomed in on it, trying to pinpoint the exact area.

 

“But surely if something’d hit the ship we’d have-”

 

_ Ka-BOOM! _ A shock like an earthquake rocketed through the  _ King Aegon, _ throwing Mark backwards into his seat. He could hear quick footsteps as someone, or multiple someones, raced towards the bridge.

 

“The left rear engine’s out,” Cry called to the crew as the bridge’s main door opened with a  _ psht _ .

 

“All the doors need codes,” an exhausted-looking Mat informed them all, panting as the door slid shut behind him and a smaller man with blue hair. Ethan was also breathing heavily, but looking less frazzled than the mathematician. “I thought we’d turned that off ages ago?”

 

“Emergency protocol,” Cry was flipping through security cameras now, so fast that it made Mark’s eyes hurt to watch him. “This doesn’t make any sense. The alarms went off  _ before _ the engine blew.”

 

“Might be a glitch,” Jack put in, checking his own screens, but with less urgency.

 

Ethan shook his head. “I know every inch of this ship like the back of my hand… something’s wrong.”

 

Mark raised two fingers, to draw attention to himself, and started, “I saw a reading on the map before-” but he was cut off as the door opened again and an alarmed Tyler ran in. The bodyguard fell against the nearest wall as soon as he was through, resting a hand on his blaster.

 

“Everything alright?” Ethan asked, and Tyler gave him a short nod. He seemed too out of breath to properly contribute to the conversation.

 

“Where’s Felix?” Mat piped up, having finally caught his own breath. “If there’s danger, he’s the least likely to be able to protect himself, what with the state he was in last night.”

 

The room fell silent as dread started to creep in.

 

“I’m calling him,” Jack turned away and tapped a few buttons on his wrist cuff, frowning when he couldn’t get a good signal. “Felix?”

 

Mark watched Jack attempt to call their missing crew member for a moment, then cleared his throat and turned to the others. “As I was saying, we need to go check it out. Cry, any danger you can see on the cameras?”

 

Cry looked up, obviously surprised that he had been called on. “...Nothing so far. Just the blown engine.”

 

“Three people should be enough, then, and alert ones at that. Who’s most awake?” Mark had already added himself to the mental list of people going, so he just needed two more volunteers.

 

“I am, now that I’ve run all the way here,” Mat lifted a hand, quickly looking around at the others.

 

“Same,” Ethan put up his as well with a nod to the mathematician.

 

“I’ll stay here and contact you guys if I see anything interesting,” Cry was fixated on the cameras again, and Mark wondered how he could even see anything on them, with the rate at which he was changing them.

 

“And of course, I’m going,” Mark added, making a dismissive hand action to punctuate his sentence.

 

“Oh no you’re not!” Jack came up behind Mark, making him jump slightly. “If there is something dangerous down there, you’re not endangering your life,  _ Captain. _ I’ll go.” The Irishman crossed his arms and lifted his chin indignantly.

 

Mark pouted slightly, but didn’t object. Jack had a point, though he wouldn’t say it to his face unless forced to. The pilot had enough dirt on him already.

 

Jack then continued with, “Also, something’s messed with our connection. I can’t get in contact with Felix.”

 

“That’s… not possible,” Ethan murmured, creasing his eyebrows. “It’s literally designed solely around never not working.”

 

Mat grimaced. “Ominous,” he paused, then added, “I’m sure he’s fine, though. Probably on his way. Maybe we’re passing through a magnetic field, that’d screw with our connection, right, Ethan?” The mathematician looked hopefully to the technician.

 

“Wh- oh, yeah, totally!” Ethan had been fiddling with the settings on his wrist communicator, but looked up again when Mat spoke his name. “It’d have to be pretty strong, though.”

 

“Let’s head out,” Jack interrupted the two, frowning slightly. “You guys,” he turned to the rest of the crew, “if we’re not back in an hour, send someone else after us.”

 

“Don’t die.” Mark said, as seriously as he could, which caused Ethan to giggle.

 

“We’ll try not to,” Mat assured him, tapping a code into the bridge door as he did so. It slid open and Jack took the lead, standing in the doorframe.

 

“Everybody got their blasters?” Jack checked. When the other two held them up, the green-haired man nodded and started out the door. “If we see Felix on the way down, we’ll let him know what’s going on.”

 

“Stay safe, you guys,” Tyler murmured as he clapped Ethan on the shoulder.

 

Mark gave Jack a thumbs-up, and it was returned before Jack ducked away into the hall. Mat and Ethan followed him, being swallowed quickly by the darkness.

 

When the door had shut again, Cry murmured somberly, “Let’s hope they all come back.”

 

**x**

 

Jack’s flashlight beam reflected off the walls, occasionally hitting him in the eyes and causing him to blink furiously as the world changed around him. As the three headed farther down, he began to notice things - flickering lights, oddly-shaped shadows, droplets of what he assumed was water on the walls, etcetera - but he paid it no mind, putting it off as his mind playing tricks on him and taking advantage of his nervousness about going down there in the first place. He was, however, concerned about the lack of lights - the whole ship was brightly lit, and an engine explosion didn’t usually knock out the lights in that area too. It also made the whole thing just a  _ shade _ creepier than it should have been, with the deep red emergency lighting.

 

They made the journey in an uneasy silence, with Ethan and Mat following a half-step behind Jack. The Irishman began to regret not asking Tyler to come - the three weren’t a very threatening bunch, all rather short and skinny with limited firearms experience. If anything happened… well, they’d all be plunged into hot water quite quickly. 

 

After passing through a couple confusing junctions, Ethan tapped on Jack’s shoulder. “Here it is,” he announced as he crossed the hall to an unassuming door labeled ‘ENGINE 3’, which he then paused in front of. Ethan checked the pad next to the door, swiping through a few screens. “It’s safe to go in.”

 

Back behind Jack, Mat looked incredibly nervous, shining his flashlight around the hall at every shadow he could see. “Is anybody else  _ really _ suspicious? Like, the engine  _ exploded, _ and there’s nothing down here, other than some blown power?” the mathematician blurted, shivering.

 

“The walls are pretty thick, in case of explosion,” Ethan informed him. “and we’ve got self-activating emergency systems, state of the art. Everything’s fine.”

 

“He’s right, though. I’ve been getting chills for the past ten minutes,” Jack shone his light back up the way they came, and it seemed to penetrate less of the darkness than before, almost as if the shadows were darker.

 

_ No, _ he thought,  _ that’s silly. It’s probably just on energy-saving mode ‘cause of the emergency lockdown, that’s it. _

 

Ethan shrugged and pressed the button to open the door. To Jack and Mat, it seemed like it slid open exceedingly slowly as they waited with baited breath to see what was behind it.

 

There was a moment’s pause, and then…

 

“Well, that was anticlimactic,” Jack commented, crossing the space and leaning on the doorframe. There was a hole blown in the side of the engine, but nothing else untoward about the room.

 

Ethan walked into the room, quickly checking over the engine with his flashlight. “It looks like it just… overheated. Honestly, it’s surprising it didn’t blow earlier.”

 

“But what about the alarms?” Mat hovered by the door, biting his lip nervously.

 

“Maybe the impending explosion registered wrong?” Jack suggested, shining his light into the corners. The light still seemed dim, and he had a crawling feeling up his back like there was someone watching him. He wished that Mat would just shut up with his worrying.

 

“I  _ programmed _ those alarms,” Mat reminded them. “They don’t just  _ register wrong. _ ”

 

“And I practically built this engine, but we all make mistakes, and things happen.” Ethan was standing on his tiptoes, peering into the hole. “Looks natural. I should be able to fix it.”

 

“Can we get the power back on from here?” Jack asked, looking up at what seemed to be wisps of smoke hanging around the ceiling.  _ Odd… _

 

“Yeah, it’s that panel over there,” Ethan pointed, and Jack strode over to it, setting down his flashlight to illuminate the area.

 

“I have a really bad feeling about this,” Mat shifted from foot to foot, looking around at the walls with blatant suspicion.

 

“You have a really bad feeling about everything,” Jack rolled his eyes. “Is it this button?”

 

“No, the blue one labeled ‘power’,” Ethan flipped a few switches on the engine.

 

“I should have guessed,” Jack snorted out a laugh and pressed the button.

 

Nothing happened for a few moments, until Jack’s flashlight, which was their main source of light at this point, flickered and went out.

 

“Should I press it again…?” Jack ventured, brow furrowing.

 

The other two flashlights then went out, plunging the three into complete darkness. Mat flicked the switch on his light a few times, to no avail.

 

“I  _ told _ you something was up,” Mat muttered nervously. “Can we please get out of here?”

 

“Okay, yeah, I’m beginning to see what you guys are seeing,” Ethan admitted, taking a step backwards. “What did Mark say about him seeing something on the map?”

 

“I-I don’t remember,” Jack replied, picking up his flashlight and trying to turn it back on. “These are busted, let’s go.”

 

Luckily, the backup lights in the hall were still illuminated, and the three made it to the door without bumping into each other.

 

“Let’s head back to the bridge and see if we can restore the power from there instead,” Jack declared, pausing outside.

 

“Sounds goo-” The engine room door slammed shut with a  _ clang, _ causing all three to jump.

 

“Should we run?” Mat asked. “I think we should run.”

 

“Run from what?” Jack scoffed, though he was all for that plan. “There’s nothing here.”

 

“What’s that, then?” Ethan pointed towards the door, where wisps of sinister pitch-black smoke were curling around the edges and slipping into the hall after them.

 

“Seal the door!” Jack exclaimed with sudden urgency, and he leapt towards the door controls. There was something dangerous onboard the ship, and evil or not, he didn’t want it anywhere near him or his friends.

 

He felt something wrap around his ankles and yank him off his feet, knocking him into the ground with great force. Pain exploded in his chest and shoulder and he cried out, scrabbling at the floor with his hands to try and get ahold of anything that could stop the creature dragging him away.

 

“Jack!” Ethan ran after him, pulling a blaster from his belt and firing above Jack at the creature itself. The shots didn’t seem to do anything, and neither did the Irishman’s struggling.

 

Pain blossomed in Jack’s head, now, as he whacked his chin on the floor and his vision blurred. He could distantly hear Ethan’s voice calling for him, but darkness was swiftly coming for him and he just had time to choke out a, “Run!” before he blacked out.

 

Noticing his friend’s unconscious state, Ethan started to fire rapidly at the creature, while reaching out for Jack with his other hand. It was ineffective, however, and the last of his shots ricocheted off the wall as it (and Jack) disappeared through the wall into the engine room. Banging on the door with his blaster hand, and trying to unlock it with his other, Ethan continued to yell Jack’s name. The pad flashed red each time, and Ethan was unable to override the door he had only just unlocked. Breathing heavily, and now thoroughly terrified, the blue-haired man started to back up, blaster pointed at the door. As he reached the hall, Ethan turned and sprinted up the corridor after Mat, who had already fled.

 

_ What am I going to tell the others? And worse, what’s going to happen to Jack? _


	4. Chapter 3

Jack slowly opened his eyes, feeling as if a train had run him over. The room (at least, he assumed it was a room) he was in was pitch-black and he could barely see his arms on the rests of the hard metal chair. He tried to lift his arms and found them tied there by something, but he couldn’t tell what. Quickly realizing that without being able to see, he’d never get out of the bindings, he decided to wait until his eyes had adjusted before creating any further plan of escape. It didn’t help that his head was pounding with a killer migraine, and he vaguely remembered whacking his head on the floor, though trying to recall before or after that was pure agony. After sitting in the dark for a few moments, he realized he could hear a static crackle like an old-model communicator coming from… behind him?

 

Suddenly, Jack had a sneaking suspicion that someone was standing behind his chair, but he still couldn’t see very well and efforts to look behind him yielded no results. Beginning to enter a state of panic, the Irishman bent forwards, trying to steady his breathing and/or relieve some of the pain in his head.

 

“Hurts, doesn’t it?” a deep voice said. Jack felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up as the shadowy figure stepped into view. “Sorry about that. I prefer my hosts unharmed, so it was the only way to knock you out without leaving too great a mark.”

 

The first thing he saw were tall black boots, then a long black coat and a smirking face with acid-green eyes as he took in the man in front of him. At least, Jack  _ thought _ it was a man. There was something about him that was just… wrong. Very, very wrong. Had he been watching a show or playing some sort of video game, Jack might have laughed at the sight of him - with all black attire, spiked black hair, and knee-high boots, he seemed to be your stereotypical edgy villain. But this was real life, and said stereotypical edgy villain had him tied to a chair. Oh, and there was a knife.

 

_ Damn, this migraine’s wrecking my brain, _ Jack thought, peering at the blade in the dim light that had appeared with the man.  _ Why is the knife the  _ last _ thing I notice? _

 

It was long, it was sharp, and it was reflecting the light right into Jack’s eyes, making him blink back tears of pain. And, of course, it was pointed at Jack’s throat, the tip almost touching his skin. He was almost scared to breathe, as if it would suddenly knock the blade into his neck.

 

“What’s the matter, Jack?” it seemed to take the man a moment to find Jack’s name. “Cat got your tongue?”

 

He eyed the blade nervously. “Couldn’t you put that away? It’s not like I’m going to attack you or anything,” he jangled the chains around his arms to support his point, somehow finding a sense of humour in that very unhumourous moment.

 

There was a pause and the man started to laugh. It was a distorted, uncanny laugh, but it got the point across. Jack let out a breath he hadn’t known he was holding as the knife was slipped into one of the many inside pockets of his coat.

 

“You’re funny,” the stranger bent down to make his eyes level with Jack’s. Pale sky-blue met glowing radioactive-green, and Jack leaned backwards in the chair - trying to do what, he wasn’t sure. “I’ve never had a funny one before. I can imagine it’s a bit more tolerable than the screaming.”

 

Maybe it was the migraine, or maybe it was some sort of coping mechanism for the, frankly, terrifying situation he was in, but Jack found himself making another dry comment. “No offense, dude, but what are you  _ talking _ about?”

 

“Where do I start…?” he straightened and touched a finger to his chin in a thoughtful gesture. “Ah, how about this?” the black-clad man leaned back down again, and Jack got another good look at his eyes. And that was when he realized what was so  _ wrong. _

 

There was nothing there. The jet-black pupils and lack of whites hadn’t thrown Jack off, what with the combination of his having met many different species’ of human throughout his career and, of course, the frustratingly painful migraine, but there was nothing behind them. His eyes betrayed no feeling, no emotion, nothing to suggest that there was anything truly  _ human _ behind them. His eyes could have been replaced with emeralds and it would have made no difference. This revelation caused Jack to inhale sharply, suddenly more scared than he had ever been before.

 

“My name is Anti,” he smiled sadistically. “This ship of yours… you’re Academy goons, aren’t you?”

 

Jack swallowed and nodded his head quickly.

 

The stranger’s expression was steeled and cold. “The Academy took someone very important to me, and I will never,  _ ever, _ be able to get h- this person back. It tore my heart out and left it to rot, losing this person, and now I’ve made it my life’s goal to punish as many Academy  _ soldiers, _ ” he bit the word out as if it were poisonous, “as I possibly can.”

 

Jack was silent for a few moments. “So you’re going to kill me?”

 

“Oh, no, no, of course not! How dare you suggest such a thing!” Anti drawled, snapping viciously back from his momentary emotional respite. “ _ I’m going to make you kill your friends. _ ”

 

**x**

 

Mat quickly typed the code into the keypad beside the bridge door, breathing heavily. He rushed inside and collapsed against the nearest wall, blinking to steady his vision.

 

“Matt? Matt!” he could hear voices around him, but he squeezed his eyes shut and tried to catch his breath. “Get him onto a chair or something. What  _ happened _ down there?”

 

He felt arms haul him up and half-carry, half-drag him to a nearby seat. Mat caught snippets of whispered conversation around him as he tried to ground himself, digging his fingers violently into the armrests.

 

_ “What’s wrong with-” _

 

_ “-he awake?” _

 

_ “-happened?” _

 

_ “Where’s-” _

 

As he struggled to stay conscious, lightheaded and dizzy, he could faintly recall the sound of the door opening again, and Ethan’s voice joining the cacophony of noise around him. Voices started to seep together and fade, and the mathematician passed out.

 

Mat hadn’t been sure how long it had been when he finally regained full consciousness, his limbs awkwardly sprawled across the chair. He blinked a few times, looking around the bridge. Everyone seemed to be there except Jack. Mat vaguely remembered going down to the engine room and racing back up the halls away from something, but he couldn’t remember what. He felt as if he’d been sleeping for days.

 

“Mark?” he mumbled groggily, trying to bring the person hovering over him into focus.

 

“Mat, it’s me, Cry,” the masked man touched his shoulder, steadying the other. “How are you feeling?”

 

“Uh… I don’t think I’m going to pass out again?” he told Cry in a raspy voice, reaching up to touch his temple. “I just feel… weird.”

 

“That’s good,” Cry replied. “Do you want water, or food, or…”

 

“I’m fine,” Mat interrupted, almost insisting. “I-I didn’t get hurt, it was probably just… shock…” he shrugged, but there was a not of unsurety in his voice. “Can you remember anything that happened down there?” Mark had appeared next to Cry, leaning over the masked man’s shoulder to peer down at him.

 

“Uh…” he thought back again and came up empty. “Not really? I think I just got freaked out.” 

 

Mark and Cry shared an uneasy glance that caused Mat to bite his lip nervously. “What’s going on?”

 

“Jack’s gone missing, and Ethan… Ethan saw something take him.” Mark told him.

 

Mat was silent for a moment. He had an odd feeling, like he had forgotten something important.

 

“Matt?” a hand was waved in front of his face.

 

“What? Oh, yeah, sorry, I was just… thinking.” he looked up at the two. “Something  _ took _ Jack?”

 

“You don’t remember it?” another face, this one edged by blue hair, appeared on Matt’s right. “Weird shadowy tentacle-things?”

 

Mat shook his head. “I think I would remember seeing ‘weird shadowy tentacle-things.’”

 

Ethan seemed skeptical from the expression he was making, but Mat didn’t pay it any mind. If one of their friends was missing,  _ of course _ there was going to be suspicion.

 

“Can you stand?” Cry asked quickly, extending a hand to help him to his feet.

 

“I… think so?” Mat took the offered hand, slowly getting up and steadying himself with the armrest.

 

As he got up, he noticed Felix and Tyler on the other side of the room, hunched over a screen and discussing something in an urgent whisper. He could catch a few words, but they didn’t make any sense out of context.

 

Tyler looked up, noticed that Mat was watching them, and quickly put away whatever they had been looking at. 

 

“We need to come up with a plan,” Mark said in a loud voice, attracting the attention of the others in the room. “And figure out what on earth happened down there.”

 

“I don’t think it’s a big deal,” Mat said with a shrug. “Jack can take care of himself, and did anybody else other than Ethan actually see these… things?” They weren’t in a dangerous area of space, after all, the worst it could be was Ethan hallucinating.

 

Ethan shot him a look that he couldn’t quite understand. “Look, man, I know what I saw down there. It’s dangerous, it’s freaky, and it’s obviously done something to you.”

 

“I’m  _ fine, _ ” Mat insisted pointedly, letting go of the chair and brushing his hands off on his pants. “You’re the one who saw something freaky  _ in the middle of a peaceful area of space. _ ”

 

“We could always eject that part of the ship,” Tyler suggested quietly. Almost immediately, everybody else started to talk over him and each other.

 

“What, no!”

 

“Jack would die  _ for sure _ if-”

 

“Tyler-”

 

“Bad freaking idea, man.”

 

“ _ Quiet! _ ” The shout from Mark was followed with silence from the rest of the bridge. “We are  _ not _ ejecting it unless we have no other option. Yes, it could kill whatever’s down there, but it would also  _ definitely _ kill Jack.” he paused. “And that’s final.”

 

Tyler looked down at his shoes, and Mat sensed that he regretted making the suggestion.

 

“Does anybody have any ideas that don’t involve a possible homicide?” the red-haired man asked, looking around at all of them.

 

Mat slowly raised his hand.

 

“Mat, put your hand down, nobody will listen to you right now,” Cry told him, gesturing with one arm for him to do exactly that.

 

Mat slowly put down his hand.

 

The six were quiet for a few moments, the silence broken only by the shifting of Ethan’s feet.

 

“What do we do?” Felix asked in a quiet murmur.

 

“I don’t know,” Mark admitted, crossing his arms. “Somebody else is going to have to go down there.”

 

“It’s not going to be you,” Cry said, taking a single step forward. “I’ll go.”

 

“No way, I’m going,” Felix interjected.

 

“I’ll do it,” Tyler announced, moving up to stand beside Mark.

 

“Guys-” 

 

With a  _ ftz _ and a  _ click, _ the lights flickered out and they were plunged into darkness.

 

“Emergency lights, get them on,” Mark ordered. 

 

Mat had to squint to see the others’ outlines without light, though he could barely figure out who anyone was. Mat heard footsteps as someone moved over to a screen and clicked it on.

 

There was a moment’s pause, then… 

 

“You guys are going to want to see this,” Cry said with a note of unsurety, face illuminated by the screen’s light.

 

“What is it?” Mark asked, moving to stand beside him and peer at the cameras.

 

“I think we’ve found Jack.”


	5. Chapter 4

They heard a low hum as the emergency power clicked on, backup lighting bathing everything in a dim red light. Felix shivered, feeling oddly unsettled, as Cry flicked the display up onto the huge screen that doubled as the bridge’s windows.

 

“It’s just a few seconds,” Cry explained. “But… well, you’ll see.” He pressed play and waited.

 

It was footage of one of the hallways, almost completely black except for the camera’s light. Nothing moved for a few moments, before something hit the camera and it fell onto the ground, the footage starting to glitch around the edges, presumably from the impact. A pair of feet stopped in front of it and the camera started to raise. Felix caught a glimpse of a face - Jack’s - before the screen went entirely black. A ‘no signal’ message appeared, and Cry turned to see their reactions.

 

“You think that’s Jack?” Tyler asked, flicking a hand towards the screen.

 

“Who else could it be?” Cry pointed out.

 

“If that’s Jack, then he’s alright,” Mark said, arms folded. “He’ll probably be back any second now.”

 

Felix could hear the unsure note in Mark’s voice, but didn’t point it out.

 

“I don’t think that was Jack,” five heads turned to look at Ethan. “It just… it just didn’t seem right.”

 

“What are you talking about?” Mat asked, fiddling with his sleeve. “You just saw it, it was obviously him!”

 

Ethan shook his head quickly, and Felix started to feel a creeping sensation on his spine. He knew what Ethan meant - there was something definitely off with the video.

 

“Ethan’s right, that wasn’t Jack,” Tyler said, moving to stand beside the blue-haired man. “That was… something else.”

 

“We’re not in Raydak territory,” Mark put in. “And every other species I can think of doesn’t work - Ilse can’t survive outside of water, Nepir would never impersonate a human if their life depended on it and are one hundred percent peaceful, and Tyrians’ disguises don’t show up on cameras.”

 

“Could be a Raydak anyway, rogue maybe?” Felix suggested.

 

“Raydak sensors are coming up blank, have been for hours.” Cry shook his head, clicking through files on his handheld tablet.

 

“I’m still in favour of going down there,” Felix waved a hand. “You guys said there was damage to the engine, right?”

 

“Yeah, but I don’t- I didn’t get a good enough look at it,” Ethan shook his head, as if trying to clear it. “If you’re going down, I’m going with you.”

 

“Nobody should leave. Nobody is leaving,” Mat said, rather abruptly, surprising Felix. “There is obviously something wrong with Jack and it could be dangerous out there so therefore we should all just stay here and wait until we can get some sort of backup to deal with it.”

 

“That was… the longest run-on sentence I have ever heard,” Felix said, raising an eyebrow and eliciting a snort of laughter from Mark.

 

“Mat, are you sure you’re feeling okay?” Ethan asked, brow furrowed in concern. “You didn’t see what I saw, and you’re more scared than I am.”

 

“What did you see down there?” Mark took a step towards Mat in an almost intimidating manner. “You really are acting weird.”

 

“I don’t-” he was interrupted by a sudden rapid series of knocks on the bridge door. Mark exchanged a look with Felix before starting towards it.

 

“Guys? Guys, it’s Jack, let me in,” a tired voice came from the other side of the door.

 

“That sure sounds like Jack.” Tyler said warily.

 

“You locked the door?” Mat asked Ethan, and when the blue-haired man nodded, he breathed a sigh of relief.

 

“Jack, you alright?” Mark called tentatively.

 

“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine, open the door,” he sounded rather nonchalant about it, as if there was nothing to be worried about. Felix noticed Ethan shifting uneasily, and Mat eyed the door with a nervous glint.

 

“Okay, I’m going to open the door,” Mark put a hand on one side of the doorframe and reached over to put in the code.

 

_ Click. _

 

Mat was pointing a gun at Mark with shaking hands, the barrel aimed directly at the captain’s head. Felix put a hand to his holster, finding his own gun suddenly missing.  _ What… how? _

 

“Don’t. Open. That. Door,” Mat took a deep breath. “or I swear I will shoot you.”

 

Mark took a step back, raising his hands in a gesture of surrender. “Mat…”

 

“There’s something wrong with him, I know there is,” Mat insisted. 

 

Felix started to inch over to the wall, slowly so as not to alert Mat.  _ If I can just get the gun away from him… what is he  _ thinking _? _ he thought, meeting Tyler’s worried, searching eyes and giving him a quick nod.

 

Suddenly, Mat turned and fired a blast into the floor, just inches away from Felix' right foot, causing him to curse quietly and freeze. “Don’t move, Felix, or I’ll shoot you too,” Mat warned and pointed the gun back at Mark.

 

“Mat, what are you doing?” the hiss came from the other side of the door. “I’m fine, I swear!”

 

The mathematician shook his head and steadied his hands. “Jack, or whatever you are, shut  _ up. _ ” He grit his teeth and took a step forward.

 

Tyler spoke next. “Mat, look at me and explain what on earth you’re doing.”

 

The second of distraction was all Mark needed, as Mat looked to Tyler and the gun dropped just an inch; he rushed forwards, catching the barrel with two hands and forcing it down to the ground. Mat struggled and Felix sprinted up the two small steps, aiding Mark in restraining him.

 

“Get off me! You don’t know what you’re doing!” Mat screeched loudly as the two wrestled him into a nearby chair. With the click of a button, Matt’s hands were secured with a simple steel binding - not nearly tight enough to be painful, but just enough to restrict his movement.

 

“Sorry, Mat,” Mark said, wrestling the gun from his grip and handing it back to Felix. “We’ll let you go in a few minutes.”

 

Felix, sensing something odd about this entire scenario but not willing to do anything stupid or crazy about it, checked the setting on the blaster before pointing it at the door. “Just in case,” he explained to nobody in particular. “Can’t be too careful.”

 

Mark walked back over to the door and started to punch in the code, number by number, each one giving a confirmatory ‘beep’.

 

Felix heard a quick intake of breath from someone, presumably Ethan, and he adjusted his grip on the gun.

 

The door started to slide open with a hiss, and Felix caught a fleeting glimpse of something dark and wisp-like before pain clutched at his head and his vision went black.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two chapters in two days? Wow :0  
> Sorry about how short this one is! Promise the next one will be longer.


	6. Chapter 5

Mark watched Felix collapse to the ground and, forgetting about Jack, ran over to him, dropping to his knees and checking the other man’s pulse. As he checked the other man over for injuries, he could hear Mat trying to escape the chair they had confined him to, and muttering something about eyes and tentacles.

 

“What’s wrong with him?” Jack asked, his voice quiet. At first, Mark thought he was talking about Felix, but then he realized that Jack meant Matt.

 

“Get  _ out, _ ” Mat hissed through his teeth at the green-haired man. “You’re dead, you’re  _ dead, _ you can’t be here, this is  _ wrong. _ ” 

 

Finding Felix perfectly fine except for his having fainted, Mark awoke him with a few light shakes of his shoulders.

 

“What the- Jack?” Felix muttered, taking notice of the pilot’s reappearance. “But…” he shook his head quickly, as if dismissing a bad thought. “Nevermind.”

 

Under closer inspection, Mark noticed that Felix' eyes were a bit out of focus and had an odd quality to them, almost as if someone had tinted the whites of his eyes slightly green, but he dismissed it as the effects of the unconsciousness and the emergency lighting.

 

“Felix!” Mat was yelling now. “Felix, don’t you see it? Didn’t you see it too? That’s not Jack, that  _ can’t _ be Jack, I saw his corpse, I saw him  _ dead- _ ”

 

“Matthew Patrick!” Mark shouted at the mathematician, getting to his feet.

 

The whole room fell silent, including the agitated man in question.

 

“Question,” Jack said, drawing the attention of the room. “What’s going on here?”

 

“Better question,” Cry interjected. “Is Felix okay?”

 

“Even better question,” Ethan added. “What happened to  _ you? _ ” he pointed a finger at Jack.

 

“Felix' fine,” the green-haired man waved a hand dismissively. “Right, Mark?”

 

Mark blinked, having not expected that. “Yeah, yeah, Felix is alright… probably just a little out of it from last night.”

 

Ethan raised an eyebrow. “He just randomly fainted, he’s not alright.”

 

Cry also seemed skeptical. “You didn’t even check him over.” the statement was obviously directed at Jack.

 

The pilot didn’t seem bothered by the words from the other crew members, dismissing them with a shrug.

 

“Jack. Where were you? What happened down there?” Tyler spoke then, moving to stand beside Ethan.

 

“I don’t even know, man,” he ran a hand through his hair. “I remember running down the hallway with Ethan, and then I woke up in front of the door to the engine room.”

 

“No, that’s not what happened, you were-” Ethan paused mid-sentence, as if he couldn’t remember what he was going to say. He blinked a few times, a confused expression coming over his face. “That makes sense.”

 

“Not you, too!” the shout came, of course, from Matt. “Don’t listen to anything he says! Don’t listen to anything either of them says! And Felix, too, for that matter - they can’t be trusted, any of them! Jack is dead, he’s dead, he’s dead, he’s  _ dead, _ that’s  _ not him. _ ”

 

Jack raised his hands in a gesture of surrender. “If you want to check me or something, go ahead. I’m one hundred percent the same ol’ Jack you saw this morning.”

 

Mark wanted to believe him, he really did, but there was just something about the way Mat and Ethan were acting that made him unusually wary.

 

Suddenly, Mark heard footsteps, and he looked over to see Cry bolting towards the still-open door.  _ How’d that happen? _ he thought.  _ The doors are supposed to automatically close when we’re on lockdown. _ Then he saw what had Cry so agitated.

 

Long, inky black tentacles were reaching through the door towards Jack, though the pilot didn’t seem to notice them. As Mark started to shout a warning, Cry reached the door’s control panel and slammed it shut, severing one of the tentacles and causing it to drop to the floor.

 

“Ja- holy  _ crap, _ ” Mark exclaimed as Cry looked down at the tentacle. He could imagine the expression on the other man’s face - disgust. It was certainly not a pleasant thing, writhing around on the ground. 

 

Jack quickly turned, spotting the unusual thing, and Mark watched as an odd emotion (excitement? Triumph? Mark wasn’t sure) flashed across his face, before changing to some combination of shock, horror, and disgust.

 

“What the-” Jack started, and then all hell broke loose.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for both the wait and the length of this chapter, I intend to get another chapter up within the next few days as well!
> 
> Also somehow this updated on the same day as TSM. Nice.


	7. Chapter 6

A few things happened at once. A crafty Mat had somehow managed to get out of his restraints and bolted towards Jack, a wild desperation in his eyes. Tyler saw Mat and rushed to intercept him, slamming into the mathematician and pinning him to the floor. Cry whipped out a blaster and shot the tentacle multiple times, causing it to stop thrashing and lie still. Ethan, Felix, Jack, and Mark didn’t move, too overwhelmed by the sudden flurry of movement, Tyler assumed. Of course, it was a bit hard to see or concentrate on the rest of the room when he was trying to hold on to a thrashing Matthew Patrick who was determined to bite, hit, kick, and/or maim him in some other way. 

 

Finally, Mat stopped struggling, but Tyler still kept him pinned down with an arm. There was a manic look in the other man’s eye that  _ really _ unsettled him, and Tyler didn’t think he could trust him to make his own decisions yet.

 

He heard a sigh and looked up to see that Jack had practically collapsed into a nearby chair, holding his head in one hand. Another look around told him that everybody else was in almost the exact same spots as they had been before Tyler had tackled Matt.

 

“Okay, everybody just needs to calm down a bit-” Mark started, but was interrupted by a noise that sounded like a cross between a whine and a hiss coming from behind him. Tyler’s head snapped to look at the source of the sound, the severed tentacle that seemed to be… dissolving?

 

Within a few moments, the hissing noise had stopped, and the tentacle had completely disintegrated into a tiny pile of black dust that curled and slipped away into nothingness. Tyler blinked a few times, once again questioning what his eyes were showing him. 

 

“Okay,  _ what was that? _ ” Ethan demanded, looking directly at Jack, who was rubbing his temple as if trying to relieve a headache. The blue-haired man stormed across the room and grabbed the front of Jack’s shirt, dragging him out of the chair to look the pilot in his good eye. “You’d better start explaining  _ right now, _ or I swear I will blast you to oblivion.”

 

“Ethan, what-” Mark stepped towards the technician, and Tyler worried that he might have to tackle Ethan, too.  

 

“Mark, stop right there, let me do this,” there was an almost pleading look in Ethan’s eye. “He did something to me, I swear he did, okay?”

 

“Uh…” Jack was looking very confused. “What did I do, exactly?”

 

“My memory is all foggy but I swear you were attacked by something down by the engine room, but just a few seconds ago you said you weren’t and  _ I agreed with you. _ ” Tyler could see Ethan’s knuckles turning white from the force with which he was clutching Jack. “Now  _ explain. _ ”

 

Jack’s blue eye flitted around the room. He looked panicked and scared, and Tyler started to reach for his gun as he felt the pilot’s gaze land on him. Then he spoke, “Ethan, I have no idea what you’re talking about, please let me go,” and Tyler stopped. There was something about his tone of voice and the look in his eyes that just seemed… fake. As if the man behind the guise of Jacksepticeye was trying to convince Ethan and the rest of the men in the room that he was innocent when he really… wasn’t.

 

Tyler looked down at Mat, who was staring up at him with wide eyes. “I’m going to let you up now,” he murmured, making sure nobody else could hear. “I know what you mean by that’s not Jack, but you can’t just attack him, ‘kay? Wait until you have more evidence and then I’ll  _ help _ you get rid of him, it, whatever.”

 

Mat blinked a few times, then nodded. As Tyler let the mathematician go and got to his feet, there was a moment where he worried that Mat would just rush Jack again, or join Ethan in haggling him, but the brown-haired man just sat up and let out a long breath.

 

Ethan was breathing heavily, and had just begun to speak again. “- _ do _ know, you’re behind all of this, aren’t you?”

 

“Stop.” Cry had moved behind Ethan, and had a hand on the blue-haired man’s shoulder. “Ethan, let go of him.”

 

The man in question did as he was directed, dropping his hands to his side and stepping back. Tyler could see his hands clench and unclench as he struggled with the situation at hand.

 

“Jack, sit do-“ before Cry had even finished his sentence, the green-haired man had fallen back into his chair, exhaling loudly. “Well. Now, everyone just needs to calm down and think rationally for a few minutes. It’s entirely possible that whatever’s down there, if there is something down there, is messing with all of us, and it’s not the fault of anybody in this room.”

 

Tyler watched as Ethan dropped down onto the ground, leaning against a control panel and looking up at the roof. He seemed to be calming down, and Tyler himself had to admit that the masked man was making a lot of sense. But there was still a nagging feeling of wrong in the back of his mind whenever he looked at Jack, and he intended to find out why.

 

“Thank you, Cry,” Mark said after a few moments of silence. Tyler gave a small start, having almost forgotten that the captain was there. “We need to work as a  _ team _ to figure out what’s going on here.”

 

Suddenly, Jack was standing again, giving a respectful nod to Mark as he passed, crossing to the other side of the room where Felix was still sitting, looking still rather out of it.

 

“Come on, Felix, on your feet.” There was an eerie look on Jack’s face that sent shivers down Tyler’s spine. He was smiling in an almost reassuring way, but he just looked… bored. 

 

Felix took the hand Jack was offering and got to his feet, returning the smile and murmuring a thanks.

 

“Oh, don’t mention it,” the smile turned cold, and his voice was dripping with malice. He watched Felix’ eyes widen as Jack grabbed him, turning him around to face the room and keeping him from escaping with an arm.

 

There was a knife at Felix’ throat now, a long thin blade that shone red in the emergency lighting. Tyler watched as it brushed the older man’s throat, leaving a thin red line that showed the sharpness of the weapon. 

 

“Nobody move, or he dies.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have nothing to say other than :DDDDDDDD
> 
> next chapter will be a long one and a wild ride!


	8. Chapter 7

“Jack, what are you doing?” Mark asked quietly. “Put the knife down and we can talk about this.” He stretched out a hand, but stopped as Jack pressed the flat of the blade against Felix' neck, sending more waves of panic through him.

 

“If any of you tries to stop me, I’ll slit his throat right here,” Jack wasn’t even looking at the American, and Felix gulped. He’d been scared for his life before, but it had never been a friend on the other end of the blade.

 

The green-haired man started to pull the Swede away, towards the door, and a displeased look developed on his face as nobody else in the room moved. “What good friends you are. I’m sure Felix very much appreciates your concern for his life.” There was an edge of sarcasm to the cold voice.

 

Painfully slowly, the door slid open behind them, and Jack dragged his hostage through the doorway with a final “He’ll be downstairs. Come and get him when you’re ready.” Because that’s what he was, wasn’t it? A hostage. 

 

The door slammed shut, plunging Felix and Jack into near-darkness, the only light a dim red. Suddenly, the light blurred and a sudden wave of vertigo rushed through the blond. The cold knife at his throat was gone, and he stumbled forwards with a relieved gasp, eyes trying to adjust to the new surroundings.

 

It was another room on the ship, but he couldn’t quite make out which one, finding a wall and leaning heavily against it. It was incredibly dark, rendering the taller man incapable to see more than a foot in front of his face, which didn’t reveal anything particularly interesting or helpful. He also didn’t know where Jack was, the Irishman having disappeared into the shadows after releasing him. 

 

“Jack? Where are you? You’ve got a crap ton of explaining to do, man. This better be some kind of sick joke-” a hand shot out of the darkness and grabbed Felix around the neck, cutting off his air and slamming him into the wall behind. His feet weren’t touching the floor anymore, and he tried desperately to pry the hand off his neck.

 

A single green eye loomed out of the surrounding darkness, peering icily at the Swede, and a familiar face could be made out around it - the face of one of Felix' closest friends - though the blond didn’t notice anything off at first.

 

The hand released its grip slightly, letting Felix breathe, and he gratefully took a few gulping breaths. “Jack- Seán- Seán, come on, man, this is ridiculous, let me go, this is all just a joke, right? Some sort of weird prank?” Oh gosh, he hoped this was a joke. He didn’t know what the alternative was, but it couldn’t be good.

 

“Shut. Up.” the green-haired man hissed through his teeth, as if thoroughly annoyed by the Swede. The hold on his throat tightened again, and Felix fought for air.

 

“S-Seán-” he managed to get out, stars swimming in front of his eyes. When he was able to breathe again, he tried to speak, but the words caught in his throat as he finally realized what was wrong.

 

The man holding him against the wall had a green eye. Jack’s eye was blue. And Jack’s sure as heck didn’t glow.

 

“Look, Felix,” the shorter man spoke nonchalantly. “I am not your friend. So don’t treat me like your friend, okay?”

 

When Felix nodded, the green-haired man let him go, and he fell to the ground, half-leaning on, half-sitting against the wall, breathing heavily.

 

“Get up,” it was almost a hiss. “I won’t ask you twice.”

 

“Who the heck are you?” the blond asked pointedly, trying to steady himself.

 

“My name is Anti,” Anti answered, reaching down to grab Felix by the front of his shirt and yank him to his feet. “And I hope you didn’t have plans for later.”

 

“What do you-” he stumbled backwards yet again as he was released, but caught himself and didn’t fall, an arm on the wall for support. Something silver caught his eye in the dark, and once his eyes refocused he realized that there was a knife in Anti’s hand. “Ja-Anti?” he ventured tentatively, hoping that the knife was just for, he didn’t know, cooking or something?

 

“Felix, Felix, Felix,” the Irishman tutted, taking a step towards the taller man. “I wish I didn’t have to do this, you know, but…”

 

Felix tried to figure out a way to escape, eyes darting around the room for a door and finding no such thing. “I always thought I was going to die heroically, not be stabbed by a creep wearing the body of one of my friends,” he joked, a smile coming to his face despite his current predicament.

 

“A shame.” Anti murmured, and the knife went in, impaling the Swede through the chest and emerging on the other side, driven by an impossibly strong arm. Felix felt his legs crumple and he struggled to draw a breath, trying to comprehend the fact that he was just  _ stabbed. _ He could taste blood, and when he looked down his entire chest was soaked in red. It was dripping down his face, too, out of his mouth, but he couldn’t lift his arms to wipe it away, his limbs feeling heavy, dragging him down, as if he had just stayed up all night and needed sleep. He resisted the urge to just fall over and let go, turning his eyes up to look at the man still holding the knife embedded in his frame. He wanted to say something snappy and memorable as his last words, but his mind was hazy and his mouth was full of blood, so he just cursed loudly and spat in Anti’s face, the sight of his disgust bringing a last smile to his face before he fell to the side, the life gone from his crumbled form.

 

**x**

 

“I told you something was wrong!” Ethan was on his feet, pointing a finger accusingly at Cry, who was shocked and betrayed by the sudden turn of events. “I told you, and you didn’t listen! And now that crazy creep has Felix!”

 

Cry felt bad that he hadn’t listened to Ethan - it had seemed like the best choice in the moment, but now… regret washed over the masked man as he was yelled at, not replying, just folding his arms in a sort of self-hug and stepping back to lean against the wall.

 

“Ethan,” Tyler placed a hand on the blue-haired man’s shoulder and he turned, as if confused. “Calm down. It’s not Cry’s fault.”

 

“We’re missing the obvious course of action here, we have to go after Jack and get Felix back,” Mat interjected, trying to speak over Tyler and Ethan.

 

Mark just looked shell-shocked, trying to start sentences and interrupting himself. “Look, guys- okay, wait… everybody, calm down, I’m sure Felix is perfectly fine-”

 

Cry’s hands moved to the sides of his face, ears buzzing as his thoughts rushed forth uncontrollably, the voices of his friends dissolving into senseless noise.

 

_ This is all your fault… you thought you could do this, you knew you would never be like them… _ Images flashed before his vision - the Academy, Jack and Felix taking him out for drinks, training with Mark and Tyler, screwing around with Ethan and Mat  ... _ but you pushed it away and now your ‘friends’ are angry with you… they don’t even know the truth…  _ his thoughts were like an angry hiss in his ringing ears, more memories resurfaced, earlier, from his accident… accident… the face of his friend, Russ, in the hospital, asking him if he was sure… sure about what, he couldn’t remember… and then pain, so much pain, his face… oh gosh, his face…  _ Cry. What a strange nickname. Do you even remember your real name, Cry? Cry? Cry, are you- _

 

“Cry, can you hear me?” 

 

The masked man blinked, finding the pair of brown eyes that was looking at him with concern. There were two strong hands on his shoulders, holding him steady, and he realized that he was on his knees, breathing like he’d just run a marathon.

 

“Cry… what happened? Are you okay?” Mark asked, moving a hand up to his hood, as if going to remove it.

 

He gently knocked the captain’s hand away, taking a moment to straighten his mask with a hiss of pain as it rubbed uncomfortably against his face, then replying. “Yeah… yeah, I’m good. I’m really sorry, I just… I got overwhelmed.” 

 

A hand was offered to him and he took it, getting to his feet and brushing stray dust off his knees. Cry made sure his hood was securely concealing his features and moved to lean back against a nearby wall.

 

Mark stepped away when he was sure that the masked man was alright, turning to the rest of the room. “I’m going to lead a group down there this time, to retrieve Felix and fully assess Jack’s current mental state. Whatever happened to him, I don’t want it affecting anybody else. Mat, I want you to stay here, taking you down to meet Jack head-on seems like a terrible idea, no offense intended-”

 

“None taken.” Mat replied, back in the chair he had earlier vacated, nodding that he should continue.

 

“-so that leaves Ethan and Tyler to come with me, unless one of you has strong feelings about staying here.” Mark spoke evenly and confidently, in the way he did, lifting the spirits of the room to a more positive ‘we can do this, it’s just another mission’ attitude. Cry was glad that he had been omitted from the team heading downstairs, his body still not working entirely properly.

 

Ethan gave the slightly shorter man a once-over with his eyes as he went by, something apologetic and yet worried in his gaze. Tyler did the same, though more concerned.

 

“Cry, Mat, keep this room on lockdown until we get back. I’ll use my auth code to open the door, so don’t open it for  _ anybody, _ alright? Just to be safe. Even if Felix comes back here, make him wait for us,” the red-haired man directed, standing by the control panel on the exit. “Keep an eye on the cameras, Cry,” he nodded to the masked man. “If you see anything weird ahead of us, give me a call.”

 

Cry nodded, and saw Mat do the same out of the corner of his eye. Mark pressed a few buttons on the keypad and the door hissed open, the red lighting from the hall throwing eerie shadows on the walls.

 

“We’ll solve this,” the captain promised, and the three disappeared into the dark.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Things will be slowing down after this, to less of a quick, action-packed mood than I had going, because though I don't enjoy writing or reading filler chapters, it IS a little hectic right now, oof.


	9. Chapter 8

Ethan stayed behind Mark and Tyler, shining his flashlight around at the walls. The emergency lighting bathed everything in an eerie red light, making his companions, especially the captain with his bright red hair, appear to be clothed in shadow. A shiver ran down his spine, recalling his earlier experiences down in the bowels of the ship with Mat and Jack, and his failure to save his friend.

 

“Ethan? You good, man?” Mark asked, quickly glancing back at the blue-haired man.

 

“Yeah, yeah, I’m okay,” the technician replied, moving closer to Tyler. His free hand strayed towards the blaster hanging on his belt, resting on the grip as he tried to reassure himself. He was slightly worried that something was going to happen to the three of them, though what he wasn’t exactly sure.

 

“This is creepy,” Tyler said bluntly, after a few moments of silence.

 

They had progressed, but all the hallways looked the same, and though he knew these halls better than he knew his own house, Ethan still worried that they were going to get lost. Or run into Jack. He wasn’t sure which was worse at this point.

 

“It is,” Mark sighed, trying a door as they went by only to find it locked, like every other. “I don’t know what I expected,” he joked, but the humour fell short in the dark, open passage. Tyler made a forced, half-hearted chuckle, and Ethan was silent, shuffling along nervously, knuckles turning white as he clutched the flashlight like a lifeline. The captain punched his code into the keypad, but it came up with an error, eliciting a frown from the red-haired man.

 

“That’s… strange,” Tyler commented, stepping towards him. “I thought your code overrode everything.”

 

“It’s supposed to,” Mark eyed the door with suspicion, then checked over his shoulder, as if he was worried that somebody was watching them. “I don’t think it’s important. Let’s keep going, and hope that the engine room works. Maybe this one’s just shorting out for some reason.”

 

Ethan looked down at his hands, which had started shaking when they stopped. They were only a few halls away from the engine room, and it was making him uneasy. He couldn’t help but worry, sensible enough after what had happened the last time he had been down there. One friend possessed, another gone crazy from the sight of it… he also couldn’t help but wonder if there was something wrong with  _ him, _ and that he just hadn’t noticed yet.

 

Mark started to lead them down the hall again but halted when they turned the corner. His face momentarily lit up, before draining of colour completely. “...Felix?”

 

The blond man stood turned around at the other end of the hall they were now in, and Ethan initially didn’t see anything off. Then he noticed the blood, dark red staining the back of Felix' shirt, along with a tear in his clothes that looked to be some sort of cut. The blue-haired man couldn’t see any wounds on Felix himself from their distance, so he hoped the blood wasn’t his… there was way too much for whatever it came from to be survivable.

 

“Felix?” The captain called again, louder this time. He took a few steps towards the older man, one hand settling on his blaster. “Felix!”

 

Ethan knew something was up. He wasn’t sure how he knew or what it was, but he just had a gut feeling that something was wrong. Felix was just standing there - wouldn’t he be trying to get back to them as quickly as possible if he’d escaped Jack? Where  _ was _ Jack? How had Felix gotten away? Was this all a trap, somehow?

 

The blond turned around, an emotionless expression on his face, and Mark froze. The normal blue of his eyes had been replaced by an ethereal green that glowed in the dark hallway, and blood stained his forearms and hands, making Ethan shudder.

 

“You’re not happy to see me?” Felix asked dryly, lifting a hand to fix his hair and leaving small streaks of blood on his head.

 

“What happened to you?” the red-haired man spoke softly, but it was distinctly audible in the echoey passage.

 

“Why don’t you come and see?” the blond taunted, placing a hand over the tear in his shirt, identical to the one on his back.

 

“Mark, don’t go over there,” Tyler warned, drawing his gun, but keeping it pointed at the floor.

 

“Did Jack do something to you?” Ethan blurted, surprised by his confidence.

 

“Something should probably be clarified here,” Felix held up a finger as if shushing the three of them. “Jack is dead.  _ Anti, _ however, is very much alive.”

 

Anti.  _ So the creature possessing Jack’s body has a name, _ Ethan thought. Another thought struck him as he glanced once again at Felix' eyes, and he asked, “Are  _ you _ Anti?”

 

“Oh, well done!” Felix-Anti clapped his hands. “Though you’re not quite right. Asking the right questions, yes, but correct, no. I am just an extension of Anti - much messier to acquire, but worth it.”

 

“What do you mean, messier?” Mark asked in a warning tone. The captain seemed to be keeping his head rather well, even though another one of their friends had just been revealed to be possessed by an alien entity.

 

“Well, if I can’t use my full strength like I do to acquire a new  _ host, _ the original consciousness must be dealt with first,” Felix-Anti explained with a shrug. “Killing is the easiest way. Then I just slip a fraction of myself in before the body itself dies.”

 

Ethan’s jaw dropped open at the nonchalant tone Felix - well, Felix' body - was using. A sudden pang of grief shot through him as he realized the implications of what Felix had said.  _ Anti has killed Felix. Felix is dead, and Anti has killed him. This is not Felix, because Felix has been murdered by an alien wearing the body of one of his best friends. _

 

“Why?” Tyler demanded, breaking the silence that had fallen. “Why are you telling us this?”

 

Felix paused, his green eyes looking thoughtful. “Well, because I might as well, seeing as it’s what’s going to happen to you,” he answered with a sneer, and Ethan gulped.

 

**x**

 

Mat leaned against the wall, trying and failing to juggle a couple of small balls he had found laying around his desk. The only sound on the bridge was the soft thumps as he fumbled the balls, dropping them to the ground and bending over to pick them up and try again. His jaw was steeled with determination, the activity offering a welcome distraction from the day’s events.

 

Cry was sitting on the opposite side of the room, watching darkened cameras on a huge screen. His face was leaning against one hand, the other hand pressing buttons every few seconds to change the display. As always, his mask’s expression was dull and emotionless, though it was slightly askew. Mat could only see the back of Cry’s hood from his vantage point, so he only saw the mask being off, unable to catch a glimpse of the other man’s slightly revealed face.

 

Mat pocketed the soft juggling balls and sauntered over to stand behind Cry’s chair. As he crossed the bridge, the other used the hand he was leaning on to shift his mask back into place, concealing all skin from view. He did this so quickly and subtly that the mathematician almost didn’t notice and wouldn’t have had he not noticed the mask being askew in the first place.

 

The brown-haired man placed a hand on the back of the chair and leaned over Cry’s shoulder, squinting at the dark display. The cameras almost looked to be of the same hallway and room, but from different angles, because of the darkness. Eventually, Mat caught glimpses of differences between the views, another door here, tables and chairs there, though it was still all thrown into shadow and bathed in red light.

 

“Where are Mark, Ethan, and Tyler?” the mathematician asked, his eyebrows crinkling in a touch of confusion. He hadn’t seen the three on any of the cameras, though he supposed he could have missed them.

 

“I don’t know,” Cry admitted, flicking through a couple more screens in rapid succession. The displays almost seemed to get darker as the camera numbers went up, jumping from feed to feed down the various corridors and into the side rooms leading down to the engine room. Their ship was fairly big, initially being intended to house multiple teams, and Ethan had just kept adding things during construction whenever he was struck by inspiration. That was how the team ended up with rooms they hardly ever used, from a room that consisted entirely of a trampoline to one designed for keeping prisoners, that door remaining perpetually closed.

 

“You  _ lost _ them?” Mat exclaimed, shocked. He wasn’t sure what Cry’s assignment description was, but he bet it was something along the lines of ‘watch the cameras and make sure nothing goes wrong’, because that’s what he seemed to do on every mission. There had been more than one time that their necks had been saved by the masked man’s attentiveness to the video feeds.

 

“Not exactly,” Cry grumbled, as if he didn’t want to admit that he had, drumming his fingers on the desk and studying one of the screens. A word and a blinking light in the corner of the feed showed that it was supposedly live, and Mat looked to the masked man to try and figure out what he was thinking. “I don’t understand… I’ve checked all the cameras in that area three times already, and they’ve just… disappeared. Maybe… maybe they’re just standing in a blind spot. That could be it.” Mat could hear an edge of panic in his voice, and the mathematician could understand why.

 

“Hey, man, just calm down for a second, I’m sure they’re alright,” Mat reassured him, though he shot an uneasy glance towards the solid metal door that separated them from the rest of the ship. “On the other hand, are  _ you _ alright? That collapse earlier didn’t seem…”

 

The masked man waved a hand dismissively, cutting off Matt’s sentence. “It was nothing. It’s nothing. I’m fine. Don’t worry about it, Mat,” Cry insisted. “We’re all kind of off right now.  _ You _ were the one going  _ insane _ earlier.” He seemed defensive, his shoulders coming up to meet his ears.

 

The mathematician’s brow furrowed in concern and suspicion. “Mm-hm.” Mat didn’t press further, turning around to lean against Cry’s desk, and casting brown eyes up towards the ceiling. He slipped a hand back into his pocket to grasp the juggling balls again, taking one out and tossing and catching it with one hand, an absentminded frown tingeing his lips.

 

An ear-splitting scream of anguish split through the ship, causing Mat to put a hand to his temple and wince in pain. He couldn’t tell if it was male or female, or where it had come from, and it left his ears ringing. The mathematician squeezed his eyes shut for a moment, shaking his head to try and clear the sound from his head.

 

“Matt?” Cry’s face showed no emotion, but his voice was laced with concern. “Are you okay?” A hand clutched at the brunet’s shoulder, the only sounds now a faint hum from the various technologies.

 

“Y-you didn’t hear it?” Mat stammered, his voice cracking slightly. He swallowed a lump that had developed in his throat, his breathing slightly quickened as he tried to calm himself down.  _ It wasn’t one of them. Oh, please, let it not have been one of them. _

 

Cry shook his head. “Hear what? Mat, what did you hear?” the masked man tapped his shoulder gently, trying to convince him to speak.

 

He didn’t want to worry the other man, so he just shook his head. “Nothing.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm working on this for Camp NaNoWriMo again! I've written more in the past couple days than I did in the last month, so I should get a couple of chapters done this month for posting over the next few months!


	10. Chapter 9

A crooked smile grew on Felix' face as he watched their expressions fade from confusion to variations of shock, disgust, and steely determination. The only sound breaking the silence was a steady  _ drip… drip… drip… _ as bright red blood seeped from Felix' sleeves and onto the floor, where it pooled like thick, crimson water.

 

Mark’s hand moved to grab his blaster, though he didn’t draw it, reluctant to fire on his friend until absolutely necessary _. _ The captain used his free hand to flick two fingers backwards, signalling that Ethan and Tyler should move back. He shifted his stance into one that was defensive, peering at Felix with guarded, hostile eyes.

 

Ethan and Tyler stepped back quickly, and Mark could feel them trying not to think too hard about the situation at hand - he was as well. He was fiercely thinking of Felix now like an enemy or threat, distancing himself from the pain of losing of his quirky blond friend to an alien entity.

 

Felix took a step forward, raising a hand to wipe a smear of blood from the side of his lip, before vanishing into thin air. Where his feet had been in the puddle of blood was slowly filled as Mark looked around with a forced calm, removing his gun from its holster and pointing it at the floor. 

 

“What the- where’d he go?” Ethan exclaimed, and Mark checked over his shoulder to see Tyler shove the blue-haired man behind him, Tyler covering Mark’s back. The technician was now almost sandwiched between the two taller men, a silent understanding passing between them that Ethan was too nervous to be of much help in a fight.

 

A loud scream pierced the captain’s ears and he winced, the hall becoming much darker as the flashlight clattered to the floor. Mark spun around and came face-to-face with Tyler in the red-tinted darkness. They barely had time to comprehend the empty space where Ethan had been before his kidnapper returned, an arm hitting each of them in the chest and throwing them back and onto the ground.

 

The red-haired man threw himself to the side and onto his stomach, pushing himself back up and onto his feet. A hand grasped his throat and he choked, strangled gasps escaping his mouth as the air was torn from his lungs, his head quickly starting to pound with lack of air.

 

“Just let go,” Felix hissed, those chilling green eyes just inches from Mark’s face. “Let go, and I won’t wake you up before I kill you.” His feet left the floor as Felix raised his arm, and he used his own hands to try and pry the blond’s fingers from his throat. His attacker had an iron grip, his grasp getting tighter and tighter, blackness encroaching on his vision.

 

Suddenly, he slammed back to the floor, stumbling to the wall and propping himself against it with an arm. Mark touched his neck with his free hand, feeling what momentarily felt like fingerprints embedded in his skin, breathing quickly to try and refill his lungs with air.

 

The captain looked up to see Tyler standing behind Felix with his gun raised, the latter in the action of rounding on him. He quickly figured out what must have happened despite his stupor; Tyler had hit the other man in the back of the head with his blaster, and more likely the shock than the force had caused Felix to drop him.

 

“Why, you-!” the blond howled, raising a hand like he was going to stab Tyler, though there was no knife held there. Tyler looked a little dumbfounded, like he couldn’t believe that something so simple had worked, and Mark knew he wasn’t going to react fast enough.

 

“Hey, Anti!” the red-haired man choked out, pushing himself off the wall and grabbing one of Felix' shoulders. Green eyes turned on him, and adrenaline pumped viciously through his veins. Mark grit his teeth together and thrust his fist as hard as he could into the side of Felix' jaw, hearing a gruesome  _ crunch _ as something broke.

 

Felix' eyes rolled up into his head and he collapsed to the floor; unconscious or dead, Mark didn’t know.

 

**x**

 

Cry was laying on an emergency mattress Mat had recovered from under one of the desks, deep in the throes of sleep. Eventually, his yawning had caught the mathematician’s attention, and Mat had volunteered to take over his role while he napped.

 

Cry never removed his mask, even when he slept, and it was somehow not uncomfortable, most likely from long habit. He was so still and his breathing so slow that he seemed to be in a coma or dead. Mat paid this no mind - after all, it had been ten years, he knew at this point that the masked man slept unusually.

 

In his mind, Cry was standing in a grand indoor garden with a high, transparent ceiling. Arches ringed the garden, and birds sung in the tops of the trees. He was mask-less, and dressed up in a neat suit and tie. There were numbers stitched on his left sleeve, but he couldn’t read them. Anything outside of the edges of the gardens was blurred, and no matter how hard he tried he couldn’t make out the details, nor could he move. 

 

“...the garden,” a voice carried into the large, open room from the far side. “And here- you there!” He could see the man now, short and fat, with an electronic cigar stuck between his teeth. “What are you doing? Get back to your quarters and stay there!”

 

Cry tilted his head forward in a nod, and, to his horror, he watched as the floor dissolved into radioactive-green acid, bubbling fiercely. It started to burn through his shoes and he tried to escape, but he found he couldn’t move. He opened his mouth to scream-

 

And the dream changed.

 

He was younger, he wasn’t sure how but he knew, and he was sitting on a cold metal counter. A tall, thin man with neatly-combed brown hair and near-invisible glasses perched on his nose was standing over a computer on the corner. The room was small, resembling a doctor’s office, and the man was wearing a long, white lab coat. There was a badge with his name pinned over his breast pocket, but Cry couldn’t read it.

 

“Well, it seems you’re exactly the kind of man I’m looking for,” the doctor - at least, Cry assumed he was a doctor based on his appearance - announced, straightening and peering over at the still unmasked man. The feeling of air on his face was strange after the many years he had spent wearing a mask, and he reached up to touch his own cheek briefly. “Just sign here, and I’ll call you in a couple of days.” He smiled at Cry, but there was a chilled aura hanging around him, like there was more than what he was telling him.

 

The doctor passed him a tablet and a stylus, and he hesitated. Unsure how to put his name, he finally decided to just put what he knew, and touched the stylus to the screen. After signing, he looked back up to watch as the doctor reached up and peeled the skin off his face, revealing a horrible disfigured visage.

 

“Do you recognize me?” he demanded, almost tauntingly. “This is what you look like, Cry.” As he watched, the face changed, getting worse, showing bone and melting parts together until it no longer resembled a face in any way, shape, or form. “Why don’t you look at yourself, Cry? Maybe you’ll finally know why your best friend  _ deserted _ you after seeing what you looked like.” What had once been the doctor jeered at him, moving closer and laughing maniacally. He opened his mouth to scream-

 

And the dream changed.

 

It was pouring rain outside, and the world was dark and dismal. Cry was standing inside a long hospital corridor, the lights stark white against the night. There were no people around, other than a familiar brown-haired man - in sunglasses despite being indoors at night. He was wearing a long, white coat just like the man in the last part of the dream, but he emanated a much more friendly aura than the last.

 

“Cry… Cry, are you sure about this?” Russ’s voice was low, and a clap of thunder rumbled outside. “This… you can’t go back after this. And if you get found out…”

 

“You can wipe my memory, right?” he confirmed, taking a step forward. “Even  _ I _ won’t know what happened to me. It’ll work, at least for a little while.” Cry raised a hand to his face, feeling his cheek and nose and mouth. “Russ… please.”

 

“Well…” he huffed a sigh, slipping his hands into his pockets. “Okay. But let’s do it quick.”

 

The unmasked man nodded, murmuring, “Thank you.”

 

“Don’t thank me yet,” Russ said, and then gave Cry a hearty shove with both hands. The walls and floor dissipated, as well as Russ, and suddenly he was falling. He could hear a heart rate monitor beeping in the background, and a man’s voice.

 

“Those- some nasty- fix it- surgery?” It faded in and out of the now-masked man’s hearing, and he let his eyes close, lids suddenly heavy.

 

_ So… tired… _ he felt sheets and pillows, cold and definitely not the ones he fell asleep with, and his limbs felt like someone had tied weights to him. He heard the heart rate monitor register a flatline, but it sounded faint and it echoed around this space, whatever it was.

 

“We’re- come on- CLEAR!” A jolt struck Cry like a bolt of lightning, and he woke up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, I actually have a posting schedule now! I'll be posting at the beginning of each month, or at least trying to.  
> Anyway, I don't have much to say about this one. See y'all at the end of chapter ten! :D


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